Patch 5.2 - Troves of the Thunder King
Patch 5.2 makes use of solo scenarios for several storytelling purposes, but one of the scenarios is purely to give you loot! To enter the scenario, you need to acquire a Key to the Palace of Lei Shen. This key drops very rarely from mobs on the Isle of Thunder, more often from rare spawns on the Isle of Thunder, and in the rare spawn chests that appear on the isle.

When you are ready you can speak to Taoshi to begin. Once the doors open, you have five minutes to loot as many chests as you can. The only thing standing in your way are hostile NPCs, doors locked by levers, and lots of traps. There are columns of lightning that slow you down and cause damage, spiders that web you to the ground, tile traps on the floor that will stun, throw, or damage you, statues that will stun and damage you, or sentries that will damage you.

The hostile NPCs consist of patrolling trolls, lions that wake up when you enter combat near them, and a final boss. The final boss is carrying one of the Golden Treasure Chests and guarding three others.

The chest you are really interested in are the Golden Treasure Chests, as they contain greater amounts of the items from the other chest, as well as higher drop rates and more gold.

After the five minutes has elapsed, Taoshi pulls you out to a safe room with several of Lei Shen's Burial Troves, which require the Burial Trove Key to open. Inside these chests you will find the same loot as the previous chests, but even more of it, along with 10 Justice Points and roughly 60 gold.

One well executed run can earn several hundred gold, 10+ Elder Charms, some Shan'ze Ritual Stones, 20-30+ Tattered Historical Parchments, and many Motes and Spirit of Harmony. It is unlikey you will earn this much on your first few runs, as it takes time to learn where all of the chests are.

Patch 5.2 - Ra-den's Room Updated
Throne of Thunder has received some significant improvements since we last previewed it (Indoor / Outdoor). One of the bigger changes is the improvement made to Ra-den's room.

Patch 5.2 Official Notes Updated
The Chinese Battle.Net site had their Patch 5.2 notes updated, so the US and EU should be updating soon as well. Thanks to ngacnlcq for the translation! Keep in mind that this may not be perfectly accurate, so should be regarded as a preview of what is to come, not fact.

Originally Posted by MMO-Champion

General

Take Over The Farm (was Buy The Farm)

Players that have grown attached to working the land at Sunsong Ranch can now take over the farm through questspurchase the land from Farmer Yoon.

Characters that are exalted with the Tillers and have unlocked all of the farm plots can choose whether they want to take over the farm or not.

Chi Wave now does 100% more damage, but its healing reduced by 14%, and no longer costs Chi, but now has a 15 second cooldown.

Zen Sphere now has a limit of 2 (was 1), detonates when either the recipient reaches 35% health or the Zen Sphere is dispelled, and no longer costs Chi. The spell now has 10 seconds cooldown. Its damage over time increased by 22%, healing over time reduced by 61%, healing when detonated reduced by 62% and detonation area increased by 40%.

Chi Burst now does 340% more damage and healing increased by 69%, no longer costs Chi, and has a 30 second cooldown.

Power Word: Solace has been replaced with a new talent: Solace & Insanity

For Holy and Discipline, Power Word: Solace replaces Holy Fire. It deals the same damage, and interacts with other spells and abilities in the same manner, but Power Word: Solace doesnt trigger Atonement, is instant, costs no mana, and restores 1% of maximum mana on each cast. When Power Word: Solace deals damage, it will also heal a friendly player within 40 yards of the target equal to 100% of its damage (When priest is healed, the healing is equal to 50% of its damage).

Power Infusion now also causes priest to deal 10% more damage, other effects remain unchanged.

Discipline

Mastery: Shield Discipline now also increases healing of all healing spells, but the bonus it provides reduced by 36%.

The range of Penance is 40 yards to both friendly targets and enemies (was 40 yards to friendly targets and 30 yards to enemies).

Spirit Shell now provides an absorbing shield equal to your average healing and absorb effects, including critical healing and Divine Aegis.Spirit Shell no longer benefits from Mastery, and now properly includes the benefits of Divine Aegis and critical effect chance.

Divine Aegis now causes critical healing to apply an absorbing shield to the target, equal to 100% of the healing, rather than double healing. In additional, it also causes Power Word: Shield to have a chance equal to priest's critical change to absorb double damage.Divine Aegis is no longer guaranteed when Prayer of Healing is cast. The effect now activates when the spell crits.

Sudden Death now has a 25% chance to activate from Overpowerhas a 10% instead of a 20% chance to activate from auto attacks and Opportunity Strike. In addition, using Execute makes Overpower free for 10 seconds.

Lava Burst base damage reduced by 33%, but now always crits. It does 50% more damage to the targets that affected by Flame Shock.

Ancestral Guidance now copies 60% (was 40%) of the healing.

Conductivity now shares healing equal to 30% (was 20%) of the initial healing.

Raids, Dungeons and Scenarios

The bags gained via LFR now have a chance to contain bonus rewards, including consumables, Spirit of Harmony, rare pets or mounts, and greens and blues that drop in normal and heroic mode.

Added a new Elder Charm called Mogu Rune of Fate. Mogu Rune of Fate can be used in the new content to provide bonus loot chance for Throne of Thunder, Nalak the Storm Lord, and Oondasta. Mogu Runes of Fate can be purchased with Lesser Charms of Good Fortune. Elder Charms of Good Fortune will still apply to Mogu'shan Vaults, Heart of Fear, Terrace of Endless Spring, the Sha of Anger, and Salyis' Warband (Galleon).

The cap of Elder Charms of Good Fortune each character can have increased to 20 (was 10).

Blue Posts

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Normal Difficulty Learning CurveHow are we expected to gear up to iLevel 500 for 5.2 when the 5.0 Raids are tuned so horribly? There is no learning curve at all for the first 8 Bosses. They can all be beaten on the first few pulls with the exception of Elegon who might take an hour or two. Then comes Garalon who is so tightly tuned it feels like pre-nerf Spine HC.
Patch 5.2 will reduce the damage and health of bosses on Patch 5.0 raids by 10%. And The 5.0 Raid Finders will have their droprate upped as well. Pair that with Patch 5.2's upcoming Raid Finder (which requires item level 480) and hopefully you'll have more than enough gear in a timely manner to finish whichever bosses you have still left in 5.0 and move on to the Throne of Thunder.

Unfortunately Draztal the game doesn't work like that as much as Blizzard would like it too. When 5.2 comes out, even those players that didn't get around to completing T14 raids will enter ToT and forget all about T14 raids. Granted there is not "catch up" system this time like other tiers which is good and bad ( good from a new player PoV, bad from an alt PoV). I hope this doesn't lead to normal modes gettign hit hard with nerf bats like firelands was
If they have enough gear to push through ToT certainly they have it to clear the remainder bosses of 5.0 raids once 5.2 has been released. Of course, it's up to each individual guild to do whatever they consider better. If they don't feel like finishing MV/HoF/TES... more power to them? Those that clear it before current content on normal will get a Feat of Strength called "Ahead of the Curve" for each of the end bosses in these three raids, too. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Blue Tweets

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

ProfessionsOf all professions, which one could need the most work to be better in the next expansion?
I'd say Leatherworking, but would be interested in other opinions. (Source)

When you make acc wid proffessions i close my account sorry this idea is Bullshit .
Why? Do you think it's a badge of honor for folks who have done it? Or do you just like the diversity? (Source)

PTR Changes to Blacksmith leveling are inspired. Can we see Tailoring & Leatherworking getting the same treatment?
If the Blacksmithing and Engingeering ones are popular, we'll keep expanding it. (Source)

FutureHow many more major content patches should we expect out of MoP?
How many would you like ideally? (Source)

Please don't let space issues get pushed past 5.2. Add a 2nd expensive void storage page. Should be trivial to implement.
Void Storage wasn't designed to let players keep every piece of gear ever or we wouldn't have capped it at all. (Source)

Any plans w/LFR loot to allow passing on loot you already have? Or allowing players to choose the type of loot they get?
Letting players choose to e.g. raid as Ret but choose Holy gear is something we plan on doing (though unlikely to make 5.2). (Source)
We don't like passing in LFR. The entire point of the new system is to remove the social element of loot among strangers. (Source)

hey, remember the Battle for Undercity quest chain, and how it was removed. It would make a great scenario!
We agree. If only we had scenario tech back then. A good wish list feature for someday. (Source)

Warlock class mount fire should be green too! I like green. I just love it. I like every kind of green...
Class mount change requires different artists than the spells, but we can try and get it for 5.3. (Source)

what are the chances of a tabard list like pets and mounts? like to keep my 25 or so keepers but need that bank space.
It's in the plan, just not something you'll see for 5.2. (Source)

UI / AddonsHave you guys ever though on getting rid of all 3rd party add-ons in WoW? I think it would add & fix a lot of problems @Ghostcrawler
Not really. It's a ton of work to support them, but many if not most players use some. The customization is cool and valuable. (Source)

Do you think that the AH needs an overhaul? From a gold maker's point of view this default AH UI is entirely insufficient.
We understand that folks who play lots of AH want additional functionality. Seems like a fine roll for add-ons though, no? (Source)

Ever considered adding a UI element for players to track important buffs/cooldowns? Just icons/bars, with minor customization.
We've considered it. Players are very specific about what / how they want info displayed though, so it's tough to design. (Source)

Miscand your solution was adding a bunch of crap to the game (pet battles, LFR, transmog, challenge... when we just wanted raids
I think it's a dangerous use of "we" to assume a lot of players prefer raiding to pet battles or transmog. (Source)

Not true. Having nothing to do in Cata started in 4.1 with months of only two dungeons. Very few complaints in 4.0
Players stopped playing 4.0 very quickly. (Source)

U've tried so many things 2 keep and bring back players but not a loyalty scheme. Seems pretty mean spirited. R u a meanie GC?
I am a meanie. Loyalty schemes are tricky. Ones used by airline and phone companies say "Don't you DARE switch even if you hate us." (Source)

It would seem though loud and angry mobs motivate more change then civil and intelligent posts. Sadly, that is how it appears.
It's not true. I think anger is what you insert in an argument when you don't have anything else. (Source)

is there any truth to a rumour you're working on bringing out level 80 servers?
No. (Source)

Probably because the current crop of designers has special needs.
True story. My need is gin after reading all these tweets. (Source)

StarCraft Universe - Open BetaStarCraft Universe is a fan created Starcraft II mod that aims to create a MMO-RPG style game within Starcraft. It takes place in an alternate timeline, 11 years after the events which transpire in the 'In Utter Darkness scenario of the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty campaign. Currently a small single player portion has been released for testing, but a multiplayer version will be coming in the future.

This game has no idea what it wants to become anymore. All everyone does is /grr at the final updates, bitch on the forums and deal w/ it. And that's it. I mean my server is so vacant, getting a Sha grp is painful, let alone 10mguilds. I think this game is exponentially losing players, unless the combine servers.

This game has no idea what it wants to become anymore. All everyone does is /grr at the final updates, bitch on the forums and deal w/ it. And that's it. I mean my server is so vacant, getting a Sha grp is painful, let alone 10mguilds. I think this game is exponentially losing players, unless the combine servers.

Why would they combine realms? For starters, they now have CRZ.

The next reason is, you could create a new character on a better populated realm, causing you to play longer and that is more money in their pockets the longer they keep you playing.

The last thing I can think of is, paid server x-fers to higher populated realms. They would love more people to do this. They are a business.

Sadly in today's world, anything and everything is about money, and very few business's care about you, just the money. They put up a front and pay the employees to act fake nice, the higher ups don't have to act nice to you, just the low level easy replaceable workers.

You will never see realms combined. If they had any care to at all, they would not have wasted time on the CRZ to start.

Also, can't wait for the next patch. It's always a blast seeing the snowflakes jump around people on their new toys.

This game has no idea what it wants to become anymore. All everyone does is /grr at the final updates, bitch on the forums and deal w/ it. And that's it. I mean my server is so vacant, getting a Sha grp is painful, let alone 10mguilds. I think this game is exponentially losing players, unless the combine servers.

Bitching about the game has been present since day 1. The game doesn't need to become anything, it just needs to keep growing and changing and trying new things. Not everything will necessarily work, but Blizz is pretty good about adjusting and learning from their mistakes. I know a lot of people yearn for the glory days of BC (or X point in time during WoW's life), but really going back to those days would be boring as hell, not to mention too time-consuming for most adults with a normal life (i.e. many of us who had plenty of time to play while in school and have moved on into the real world and gotten married, had kids, and whatever else).

Q: Where the fuck is Xia Xia, SIU?!?!
A1: She needs to start making eggs for Easter...
A2: Drunk and sleeping somewhere.

The problem isn't the game. It's the player base now. No matter what the patch notes will say you'll have at least half the WoW population in tears complaining their class doesn't need nerfed, or why did you not buff this or why did you buff that when it's clearly way too OP.

This game's player's are a complete joke now. I've rarely had an actual problem with anything that GC nor anyone else has none because I've read in-depth through interviews about why they do this, or why can't they do that.

5.2 is looking really good and I'm incredibly excited for it. Granted I'll now have 9 other 90's to get to 480 so I can do ToT Ugh =/

---------- Post added 2013-02-19 at 09:18 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Hunterpower

yay still no new hunter stuff. seriously, i'd kill to see anything even a nerf, it feels like they forgot we existed lately.

I love when people put down the number of raids/raid updates for new expansions:

Vanilla = 2 years of 8 raids (with Ony being one boss with basically no trash)
BC = 2 years of 9 raids (with one being one boss, and one being two bosses with basically no trash)
WotLK = 2 years of 9 raids (with three dragon themed, one boss encounters)
Cata = 2 years of 6 raids (except for Baradin, removed the one boss raids)
Pandaria = Since it's release 5 months ago, it will have 4 raids (not including world bosses) upon 5.2.

Honestly, Pandaria isn't too shabby if they keep this up. Cata had the lowest .. but they admittedly said they screwed up doing the Vash raid and they did say that it would be smaller end-game since the bulk of the expansion would be them remodeling EK/Kali. So .. yeah. Pretty on-par, honestly.

I love when people put down the number of raids/raid updates for new expansions:

Vanilla = 2 years of 8 raids (with Ony being one boss with basically no trash)
BC = 2 years of 9 raids (with one being one boss, and one being two bosses with basically no trash)
WotLK = 2 years of 9 raids (with three dragon themed, one boss encounters)
Cata = 2 years of 6 raids (except for Baradin, removed the one boss raids)
Pandaria = Since it's release 5 months ago, it will have 4 raids (not including world bosses) upon 5.2.

Honestly, Pandaria isn't too shabby if they keep this up. Cata had the lowest .. but they admittedly said they screwed up doing the Vash raid and they did say that it would be smaller end-game since the bulk of the expansion would be them remodeling EK/Kali. So .. yeah. Pretty on-par, honestly.

Raids get a lot more difficult than that, though.

You could try counting the number of bosses in a raid, but for Older Raids (like Molten Core,) most of the bosses, though numerous, didn't have particularly complicated mechanics involved beyond one or two gimmicks layered upon walls of damage.

You could try counting the number of new models in a raid... but that starts to lose focus as well. Dragon Soul technically had nine "new" models, devoted entirely to Deathwing himself, while none of the other bosses had new models. This is true for a lot of the old raids; Karazhan had 12 bosses, but only Nightbane wasn't a reskin or straight up reused skin, as the other bosses were.

"Do not look down, my friend. Even in the darkest of times, there is always hope... Hope for a better day, hope for a new dawn... Or just hope for a good breakfast. You start small, then see what you can get." ~ Covetous Shen